The National Issues Forums Institute published the Issue Guide, America’s Energy Future: How Can We Take Charge?, in January 2015. This Issue Guide puts forth three options for deliberation of how America can address its energy consumption and how to deal with it in the future.   

From the guide…

Americans depend on easy access to energy. Most of us take it for granted that we will be able to light up a room with the flick of a switch, adjust the temperature of our homes at will, and climb into our cars every morning to go to work, often at distant sites.

We use more energy than any other country. Americans make up only 4.5 percent of the world’s population, yet we consume about 20 percent of the world’s energy production. Collectively, we drive more, heat more, air condition more, and plug in more electronic devices than anyone else. We use 22 percent of the oil consumed in the world each day.

Worldwide energy use is on the upswing as well, and is projected to keep increasing, as rapidly developing countries, such as China, India, and Brazil, become bigger players in the worldwide market for energy supplies, especially oil. And— sooner or later—the world’s available supply of oil will run out.

The Issue Guide presents three options for deliberation:

Option One: “Produce the Energy We Need to Maintain Our Way of Life”
We need to control our own sources of energy so that we do not have to depend on other, possibly unfriendly, countries for our supplies. We have abundant sources of energy in this country and off its shores. We should develop and use them.

Option Two: “Put More Renewables and Clean Energy Sources into the Mix”
Not only is our lavish use of fossil fuels causing untold damage to the environment, but someday we will run out of oil, coal, and natural gas. We need to make the switch to renewable sources of energy, such as wind and sun, as soon as possible.

Option Three: “Find Ways to Use Less Energy”
The most practical way to deal with our current energy problems in not to produce more energy but to use less of it, and to do more with the energy we do use. This will involve both stricter government regulations and changes in our individual lifestyles.

More about the NIFI Issue Guides
NIFI’s Issue Guides introduce participants to several choices or approaches to consider. Rather than conforming to any single public proposal, each choice reflects widely held concerns and principles. Panels of experts review manuscripts to make sure the choices are presented accurately and fairly. By intention, Issue Guides do not identify individuals or organizations with partisan labels, such as Democratic, Republican, conservative, or liberal. The goal is to present ideas in a fresh way that encourages readers to judge them on their merit.

Issue Guides are generally available in print or PDF download for a small fee ($2 to $4). All NIFI Issue Guides and associated tools can be accessed at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guides.

Follow on Twitter: @NIForums.

Resource Link: www.nifi.org/en/issue-guide/americas-energy-future

The National Issues Forums Institute published the Issue Guide, How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?, in April 2015. This guide is to help facilitate deliberation on the issues around the entire US healthcare system.

From the guide…

Americans have good reason to worry about the high costs of health care. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. Nationally, health care spending threatens the nation’s long-term solvency. We urgently need to find ways to make our health care system financially sustainable.

Health Care: How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care we Need? clarifies this difficult challenge and offers three options to address issues through changes in the way hospitals and doctors function, end of life care, unhealthy lifestyles, smoking habits, employee wellness, health insurance, childbirth procedures, the pharmaceutical industry and reforms in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. It’s a balanced, open-minded look at the entire healthcare system—one that moves the discussion beyond the current political debate.

The Issue Guide presents three options for deliberation:

Option One: “As a Nation and as Individuals We Need to Live within Our Means”
The problem is we spend more than any other developed country on health care without questioning whether more is always better. Reining in spending is a matter of tightening our belts and sticking to a budget even if it means sacrifice.

Option Two: “Make Health Care More Transparent, Accountable, and Efficient”
The biggest driver of health care spending is the design of the US health care system- or rather the lack of design. The system needs regulation or incentives, or both, to instill financial discipline and end greed and abuse.

Option Three: “Take Responsibility for Lowering Health Care Costs by Focusing on Wellness”
Our own unhealthy behaviors- smoking, excessive drinking, drug abuse, lack of exercise, and more- are driving up health care costs. Collective and individual efforts in improve healthy behaviors are the key to lowering costs.

More about the NIFI Issue Guides
NIFI’s Issue Guides introduce participants to several choices or approaches to consider. Rather than conforming to any single public proposal, each choice reflects widely held concerns and principles. Panels of experts review manuscripts to make sure the choices are presented accurately and fairly. By intention, Issue Guides do not identify individuals or organizations with partisan labels, such as Democratic, Republican, conservative, or liberal. The goal is to present ideas in a fresh way that encourages readers to judge them on their merit.

Issue Guides are generally available in print or PDF download for a small fee ($2 to $4). All NIFI Issue Guides and associated tools can be accessed at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guides.

Follow on Twitter: @NIForums.

Resource Link: www.nifi.org/en/issue-guide/health-care

In November 2014, the National Issues Forums Institute published the Issue Guide, Alcohol in America: What Can We Do about Excessive Drinking?  This guide is to help facilitate public deliberation in regards to the problem of alcoholism in America.

From the guide…

Alcohol is a legal beverage, but its misuse hurts people, costs our nation billions of dollars, and makes the public less safe. The question remains: What can we do about excessive alcohol use?”

The Issue Guide presents three options for deliberation:

Option One: “Protect Others from Danger”
Society should do what it takes to protect itself from the negative consequences of drinking behavior.

Option Two: “Help People with Alcohol Problems”
We need to help people reduce their drinking.

Option Three: “Change Society’s Relationship with Alcohol”
This option says that solutions must address the societal attitudes and environments that make heavy drinking widely accepted.

More about the NIFI Issue Guides
NIFI’s Issue Guides introduce participants to several choices or approaches to consider. Rather than conforming to any single public proposal, each choice reflects widely held concerns and principles. Panels of experts review manuscripts to make sure the choices are presented accurately and fairly. By intention, Issue Guides do not identify individuals or organizations with partisan labels, such as Democratic, Republican, conservative, or liberal. The goal is to present ideas in a fresh way that encourages readers to judge them on their merit.

Issue Guides are generally available in print or PDF download for a small fee ($2 to $4). All NIFI Issue Guides and associated tools can be accessed at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guides

Follow on Twitter: @NIForums.

Resource Link: www.nifi.org/en/issue-guide/alcohol-america

In January 2015, the National Issues Forums Institute released the four-page Issue Advisory, Infectious Disease Outbreaks: How Should We Keep Our Communities Safe? The Issue Advisory is not a full NIFI issue guide, though provides a basic outline of options for participants to use in deliberation on handling infectious disease. It can be downloaded for free here.

From the introduction…

The outbreak of Ebola has reached the United States and this has raised concerns among many about how to respond to international outbreaks of contagious, potentially deadly diseases for which vaccines are not yet available.

Ebola spread so rapidly in parts of Africa—and its effects are so dramatic—that many Americans are understandably frightened that isolated cases in this country could turn into a more widespread epidemic. While contracting Ebola requires direct contact with body fluids from an infected person who is showing symptoms, health-care workers who had apparently been following precautions have contracted it.

Health experts say it is important to remember that the number of Ebola cases in the U.S. is minuscule, while according to the Centers for Disease Control more than 200,000 Americans are hospitalized for the flu each year. And as we work through how best to respond, many are mindful that the lack of sanitation and health-care resources is largely to blame for Ebola’s deadly toll in impoverished areas of western Africa. Recovery by patients treated in the U.S. has been promising. But at the same time, what many see as obvious gaps in protection by a variety of institutions in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak have people wondering how ready we are as a society for other, similar problems. While Ebola is one example used in this issue advisory, these considerations might apply to many other infectious diseases, as well.

The issue advisory presents three options for deliberation:

Option One: “Enforce Safety Rules”
We must institute strong measures to contain any incidence of a deadly communicable disease.

Option Two: “Stamp It Out at the Source”
The world must vastly increase its efforts to address public health crises in the location where diseases first occur, such as the African Ebola Zone.

Option Three: “Emphasize Prevention and Preparation in the Community”
We should get serious about prevention and preparation.

More about the NIFI Issue Advisory
This Issue Advisory is meant to support deliberative forums in communities of all types. In productive deliberation, people examine the advantages and disadvantages of different options for addressing a difficult public problem, weighing these against the things they hold deeply valuable. The framework outlined in this issue advisory encompasses several options and provides an alternative means for moving forward in order to avoid polarizing rhetoric. Each option is rooted in a shared concern, proposes a distinct strategy for addressing the problem, and includes roles for citizens to play. Equally important, each option presents the drawbacks inherent in each action.

All NIFI issue guides and associated tools can be accessed at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guides

Resource Link: www.nifi.org/en/catalog/product/infectious-disease-outbreaks-how-should-we-keep-our-communities-safe